Young indigenous men most likely to be in juvenile detention

YOUNG indigenous people are 31 times more likely to be in juvenile detention, a new report has revealed.

Young men are also over-represented in the juvenile detention population, accounting for 91% of young people in detention.

These alarming statistic were contained in a report released on Thursday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

The report focused on trends over the four-year period from the June quarter 2008 to the June quarter this year.

On an average night in the June quarter of this year there were 1024 young people in juvenile detention across Australia, the report found.

AIHW spokesman Tim Beard said this equated to about one in every 3000 young people aged 10-17 in the overall population.

But alarmingly one in 217 indigenous young people aged 10-17 were in detention on an average night, he said.

"Indigenous young people were 31 times as likely as non-indigenous young people to be in detention on an average night in the June quarter 2012, up from 27 times as likely in the June quarter 2008," Mr Beard said.

Most young people in detention were aged 10-17, and just over half (53%) were indigenous.

Both the number and rate of young people in detention have remained relatively stable over recent years.

Of the 1000 young people in detention, a little more than 50% were awaiting the commencement or outcome of their court matter or sentencing.

In the last year, there was an increase in the unsentenced population (up 9%) and a decrease in the sentenced population (down 9%).